Edward Jackson, grandfather of Stonewall Jackson, came to the West Fork valley with his family in 1801 and within the next few years built a log gristmill at a bend on the east side of the West Fork River. Milling was an important industry in the frontier economy, and Edward's mill was very successful. After Edward's death in 1828, his son Cummins took possession of the mill, the best part of his father's legacy. Having learned the milling trade well, Cummins recognized that the West Fork's powerful current threatened the site and rebuilt the mill on the river's west bank, on the inside of the bend, retaining only the machinery and foundation timber of Edward's mill. This new mill, constructed of hand-hewn timber and boards produced at the sawmill, burned within a few years. Cummins rebuilt again on the same site in 1841, creating a two and a half story building on a foundation of native stone, forty feet square and made of lumber produced at the sawmill, with power provided by two water wheels beneath the first floor.